A disabled activist will seek a long-refused written disability dispensation so that she can show her crafts on
Pacific Ave. without being driven away by Santa Cruz’s noxious ‘Move ‘Em Along” law on Friday November 7- 2 PM at the City Attorney’s Office 333 Church.
4 PM 11-8 Saturday KSCO (AM 1080) Restoration of Human Rights for the Homeless advocates versus StabSantaCruz anti-homeless blogger Helbard Alkhassadeh. 5 PM 11-10 on the sidewalk near Calvalry Episcopal at Church and Cedar. out-of-town attorney Paul Cook will advise homeless people losing property and rights how to reclaim them or their cash equivalent in Small Claims Court. 3 PM Cafe HUFF and Joe Schultz will provide food for the 11-11 Tuesday City Council meeting fighting colored dot “performer pens” on Pacific Avenue and “Stay-Away” laws. 5 PM on the same day disabled activist Pat Colby will seek a long-refused written disability dispensation at City Council so that she can show her crafts on Pacific Ave. without being driven away by Santa Cruz’s noxious ‘Move ‘Em Along” law.
Paranoia around the Drug War is being used to futile a thinly-concealed “Scare ‘Em Out of Town” agenda against homeless people–long a target of city laws, police, and rangers.
Restoration of rights and restitution for damages is likely to come only when tenants, students, minorities, the elderly, working folks, and homeless join in a broad coalition to refocus on the white collar crimes of the 1% and the complicity of the 30%.
Steve Pleich, attorney Judy Bari, and MHCAN activist Sarah Leonard are working on filing a class action lawsuit that may stop the regular conflscation and/or destruction of homeless survival gear and personal items.
In a grim and little-noticed follow-up to NIMBY attacks on homeless recyclers, first one and then the only remaining recycling center in city limits has reportedly closed down without public hearing or notice. I am told the nearest one is now in Capitola.
We are seeing food programs driven or pressured indoors to avoid the community seeing visible poverty, prison-like conditions developing at the Homeless Services Center, harsh library regulations to step up the pressure on homeless people there, churches cutting back their programs, and massive over-policing downtown, in the parks, and at the Beach.
Against this ugly darkening picture, activists are working to document the financial and human cost of new Jim Crow laws against the poor, to speak out against them, and to mobilize legal resources to fight back.
4 PM SATURDAY 11-8 ON KSCO Folks can listen in to KSCO at AM 1080 or do so on line. The call-in number is 479-1080. We will be seeking support for strategies legal and streetside to restore basic civil rights to homeless people suffering from the massive increase in ticketing and harassment.
5 PM MONDAY 11-10 on the sidewalk outside THE RED CHURCH (Calvary Episcopal Cedar and Lincoln) Attorney Paul Cook has successfully beat back attempts to shut him down in Baldwin Park in southern California (http://alchemistcook.
3 PM TUESDAY 11-11 outside CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS Protest demanding an end to Stay-Away Orders, Performance Pens, Forbidden Zones, and other repressive restrictions on public space in Santa Cruz–particularly those impacting the poor and homeless. Cafe HUFF will serve coffee and brownies. Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz will provide savory hot vegan soup.
5 PM TUESDAY 11-11 at CITY COUNCIL (809 Center St.) Disabled activists will confront City Council and the City Attorney to demand written authorization so they can vend, perform, sit, and sparechange downtown without suffering hundreds of dollars in fines under tghe “Move every hour for 100” and begone for 24 hours” law [MC 5.43.020(2)].
Bring friends.
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